Post navigation

A Dirty Post

Today at my house, it’s all about the dirt. Determined to get an early start this year, I’m taking advantage of a rare bright, dry, sunny day to begin preparing the soil in the various flower and vegetable beds around our homestead. This is weighty work, folks…and it’s a dirty, dirty business.

When it comes to cultivating a thriving, prolific garden, soil is everything. Planting a garden without taking into account one’s soil type and amendments that should be made will yield inconsistent—and often disastrous—results. The soil in your garden is what will bring your plants the necessary nutrients and moisture, and provide a foundation for their delicate root structures. What could be more important?

Because I have a dirty mind today, I’m bringing this soil-themed post out of the archives. Now’s the time to start tackling the dirt!

WARNING: If you don’t want to read a long post about dirt, please visit one of the other sections of my site. Thank you for your cooperation. This is a recording.

One of the most important aspects of gardening is the soil in which you grow your plants. No matter what else you do—buy high quality seeds, fertilize, water, prune—your garden will never be everything it can be if the soil isn’t right. Often, a bad garden has a lot less to do with the amount of watering or brand of seeds or starter plants and much more to do with the dirt.

Really, it all starts with the dirt.

The perfect garden soil is one that drains well and has a good mix of sand, clay, and organic matter. There are entire books written on the subject of soil, and if you want to get serious about growing vegetables it would behoove you to spend a little time diving into the more scientific areas of dirt: nutrient levels, pH, soil structure, etc. I won’t try to be the exhaustive source for all your soil questions for two very important reasons:

1. I’m not an expert and wouldn’t want to represent myself as an authority on the subject of soil
2. I’m much more laid back and less precise when it comes to how I approach the soil in my own garden. Over the course of several years of gardening, I’ve gotten a feel for what kind of dirt I have to work with around here and what I need to do before planting to bring it up to snuff

So in a nutshell, let me repeat my disclaimers:

* There are plenty of people who know way more about the science of soil than I do
* I have fun with my gardening and enjoy learning from my good (and bad) experiences
* I don’t worry my pretty dorky little head about testing my soil and getting the balance perfect. If my plants thrive, I figure I’m doing something right. If they die a quick and painful death, I examine the soil and do my best to remedy the situation the next year.
* Amen

Oh, and one more thing: I realize some folks who ARE soil experts or strict rule followers when it comes to soil are going to either excoriate me for not being a good steward of the earth OR call the soil police to come haul me off. Or both.

And if they do, I’m going to grow them some tomatoes this year.

SOIL!

There are three primary types of soil:

SAND: Think the stuff in the sandbox: Very loose, very light brown in color. Sandy soil is loose; if you grab a handful of sandy soil and squeeze the handful together, it doesn’t form a solid clump. It lacks structure. It’s loosey goosey.

Sandy soil drains extremely well: Imagine if you packed your raised flower bed with sand, then poured water over the top. The water would immediately seep into the sand and disappear, AND the sand would dry out very quickly.

Overly sandy soil is not ideal for growing plants. First, it lacks the rich nutrients needed to supply the plants with what they need to thrive. Second, in very hot weather plants are in danger of drying out too quickly since the sandy quality causes the water to drain away too quickly.

Sandy soil also lacks good support system for plants.

Sorry, Sand. But you need a little help.

CLAY: Clayey soil is from the devil and I hate it, but that’s only because all of the dirt around my house is very clayey and I’ve had to battle it for years. One of the reasons I’ve fallen in love with raised beds is that it allows me to bring in better dirt and not have to constantly battle the heavy, dense clay I have in the ground. Clay soil is very dark in color (sometimes reddish, sometimes black) and is very dense and packed. If you were to dig a hole in your yard and find nothing but various sizes of hard clumps that aren’t easily broken up, you’ll know you have clay soil.

Overly clayey soil is not ideal for growing plants because the delicate root systems have a hard time pushing through the hard soil and growing. Also, clay soil doesn’t drain well at all. Imagine if you packed your raised flower bed with hard, heavy clay, then poured water over the top. Basically, you’d have a large puddle on top of the dirt, and it would remain there for quite some time. After a heavy rain, it’s the areas with clay soil that show big pools and puddles of water. This is not good for plants. What moisture does make it through to the soil under the surface tends to move very slowly through it, which can rot and ruin the root systems of the plants. CLAY SOIL: Bad.

LOAM: Loamy soil is delicious. Often found in river bottoms, it is the ideal soil for growing vegetables (or flowers, for that matter) because it’s a nice mix of sand, clay, silt, and organic matter. Loamy soil drains water at a nice pace. If you packed your raised bed with loamy soil and poured water over the top, the water might temporarily pool on the top, but before long it would seep into the soil and provide nice moisture for the root systems of the plants.

Let me show you what I have around my house and in some of my flower beds.

This soil came straight out of my yard. You can see the hard and dense lump of clay—it almost resembles the clay a potter would use to throw a pot. If I were to try to plant seeds in this, they’d never be able to push through the dense material. Not only that, the roots would get too wet since the clay doesn’t drain very well.

This is not a Rorschach test. This is a look at the two kinds of soils I have in the various raised beds around my house. The soil on the RIGHT is NEW—I just got it last year to fill four new beds I’d added to my garden, and it’s extremely sandy.

Here’s what it looks like in my flower bed.

As you can see, its texture really is similar to fine sand in a sandbox.

And when I form a clump, it easily breaks apart if I apply any pressure.

*Important: Please ignore my alien hand. Thank you.

VERDICT: The vegetables I grew in these new beds last year did not do very well. The soil drained well—almost too well—and in the hot Oklahoma summer, the plants would sometimes start to dry out by day’s end. Also, as the seedlings I planted began to grow, I had to go in several times and shore them up since the sand provided very little support. In addition, I never worked compost—rich, dark organic material—into these beds, and the plants just didn’t have the nutrients they needed to thrive.

This is a sample of the soil from the rest of my flower beds—beds in which I’ve grown vegetables for the past several years. You can see a marked difference in color from the other soil—a result from a yearly infusion of rich composted material. Still, this soil began as the soil from my yard—Marlboro Man and I dug a hole in a remote area and filled the beds with it—so it does tend to be a little on the clayey side. Notice the clumps.

But even though I’ll find clumps like this in the beds, the clumps break apart easily. They don’t hold together like a clump of clay.

This year, before I plant, I’ll work more compost into these beds. I’ll also throw in some of the sandy soil from my new beds, just to help break up a little of the clayeyness (not a word).

As for the new, sandier soil, I’ll be adding in quite a bit of compost and probably a little soil from another hole somewhere around my house. I haven’t produced much compost this year because I’ve been lazy, so I’ll plan on buying a good quantity of the stuff. I just need this dirt to be a little richer.

That just gives you a peek at the process I use. It’s all by feel, with a tiny bit of common sense, along with a wing and a few prayers.

But that’s what I love about gardening.

So, what kind of soil do you have? Have you ever dug several inches into your backyard and examined the dirt below? Is it dry and loose and grainy? When moist, does it hold together in a hard clump? Or does it crumble and fall apart? If you’re going to fill your raised bed with dirt from an area in your backyard, it will help to know what kind of soil you have so you’ll know how to amend it and make it all that it needs to be.

Or, if you don’t have enough yard to be able to steal dirt from your own property, you’ll have to get it from an outside source.

If you live on acreage or have a huge back yard, you probably have a spot where you can grab extra dirt for your raised flower bed.

If, however, you have a small yard without any obvious area where you can retrieve a relatively large volume of dirt, you have a few different options:

1. Call a dirt contractor—or a large landscape center—in your area. Tell them the dimensions of your flower bed (width, depth, height) and let them know you’d like to fill it with a 50/50 (give or take) mixture of good, loamy soil and compost (which they’ll likely also sell) from within an inch or two of the top of the bed. Many contractors specialize in different kinds of dirt and can specifically deliver “river loam” or “loamy soil”, or even “screened loam”, which is run through a screen to filter out weeds and rocks. They’ll use the dimensions of your raised bed to determine how many cubic yards of material you’ll need. For the size of raised bed I showed last week—8′ x 4′ x 12″—you could expect to need 1 to 2 cubic yards of material; you could expect to pay anywhere from $25 to $50 for all the dirt and compost you need to fill it.

2. Go to a friend’s house in the middle of the night with a large shovel. Sneak into his backyard with a wheelbarrow. Dig a big hole in his yard and steal a bunch of his dirt. When he calls you the next day, indignant that some scoundrel dug a hole in his yard in the middle of his night, feign disbelief and tell him you heard there was a rash of dirt burglars in the region. Go to confession.

3. Just kidding about that last one. I think.

For those of you who garden in urban areas, please share your experiences/advice relating to importing dirt. As someone who’s lived in the middle of nowhere for the past thirteen years, I welcome input from civilization!

Post navigation

Share:

Share this post:

Comment:Post a comment:

Comments

This will be my first year planting a garden since we live in a new home. I am super excited. I wish I could get an early start, but we still have loads of snow on the ground!

Deb from Austin

I am so lucky in that my soil is naturally loamy…I don’t need to add anything! Happy dance!

Cindy

I love being a dirty girl! I like it when there’s dirt under my nails and at the end of the day I can look outside and see the fruit of my labors. Ripe, ready, expectant dirt……are herbs and tomatos and strawberries far behind?

http://karensquilting.com/blog/ Karen

yes the weather is finally getting to the time of year where we start to think of vegetable gardens and flower beds. I was just outside yesterday cleaning out a flower bed and I have about five more to work on! No vegetable garden this summer as we will be gone part of the growing season but the flowers will get attention.
Karenhttp://karensquilting.com/blog/

It’s in my blood to get out and get my hands in the dirt this time of year! Can’t wait to see something green!

http://heyercapital.wordpress.com Brian Heyer

Mon Dieu, woman. You live in the middle of a manure kingdom. Just throw down a lawyer of manure, mix it all up, and give it a month to sit and think. Or meld, if it was a lasagna.

http://www.thetwinmama.wordpress.com CopperKettleConfections

I’ve ordered my seeds and will be starting up our greenhouse next week! I can’t wait to get some dirt under my fingernails! (Even if it must be indoors for awhile. We still have snow here in Ohio!)

Tristan

I went to the main page, saw a photo of dirt and worms and said, “OOOOoo DIRT!” I am so excited for Spring. Dirt really excited me this morning. Geez, that is kind of pathetic!!

http://arundati.wordpress.com arundati

Whoa!! i’d lunge straight for that rock on your left hand!! 🙂

http://endlessvine.blogspot.com Crystal

Clay IS evil.

Amelia

Boyfriend is going to get topsoil for a new bed tomorrow! He’s also going to turn the compost pile for the first time since fall, when we pillaged the city for sacks of leaves that people leave out on the curb for collection. The city takes that yard waste and turns it into mulch that it gives away for free 6 times during the spring/summer/fall. While he does the dirty stuff, I will play with the dog. Or with my new Kitchen Aid. Haven’t decided yet.

carol

This year, the heavy snows and crazy winds have taken down many trees/ branches. I am excited for the new found sun to expand my panting area even though I am so sad to see 100+ year old trees gone. In NJ, we have wonderful soil that needs little more than leaf mulch each spring. That’s why we are the “Garden State”… believe it or not!

http://birdfarmsouth.com Lisa S.

Hey Ree – you raise cattle and keep horses…and you are buying compost?????
I just keep horses, but all I gotta buy is sand.

http://griffithland.blogspot.com Robbin

I can’t WAIT to start planting our garden, but its way too wet and muddy and COLD here to do anything.

Janette

I was just going outside to see how my dirty was coming along after all of the rain we have had here in San Diego. I fear the water will have washed off all of my “good dirt” and left me lovely, sticky, wet clay! If that is the case, me and the kids will be out digging the clay and adding some nice moist, dark compost! Fun!!!

We have combination soil. It’s odd….I’ve never had to do much with the sandy soil, things have been growing pretty well. Especially my rhubarb. But you can buy better soil and mix it in with your existing soil or you can do a complete re-do and get all new soil.
And I’ll just say when I’m gardening and see a worm…ick. I hate worms. I cover them up with a pile of dirt so I don’t have to look at them.

Love this post! I teach a unit on soil to my environmental science students (high school) and alway start by saying it’s SOIL, not DIRT. I’ve got some fun activities to get hands dirty, (or soily?) too. 🙂

Lee Ann

Must be something in the air, or the phase of the moon! Tomorrow is the day we had planned to measure out our raised beds and start the process. Thanks for this timely post. I just wish I’d planned ahead enough to compost all winter.